Complete swatchfest: the Ellana Mineral Loose Foundation
I hope you're safe and snug wherever you are! The rain is pretty terrible. But let's take our minds off it and discuss, well, makeup! Today I want to share swatches and my advice on choosing the perfect Ellana Minerals foundation shade. There are ten in the loose formula line, which can be intimidating if you haven't seen them in person.
The good thing about it though is that you have more leeway in finding the right shade for you. Ellana offers free samples of ALL their loose powders too, and you only have to pay P80 for shipping to get the full 22-piece set. That's pretty handy if you're the type who likes being dead sure about her shade.
Here are all ten shades, swatched lightest to darkest. There are three under tones available: Warm, which is yellowish/golden; Olive, which is a more neutral mix of yellow and beige; and Cool, which is beige with a slight hint of pink. A general guide for choosing the correct under tone is to check your veins on your inner wrist. If they're mostly blue, you're Cool. If they're mostly green, you're Warm. If it's an equal combination of both, you're likely an Olive or neutral.
I'm talking in general terms here though! The best way to find out is to swatch everything and see what matches.
Cafe Breve is almost white. This is mainly used for highlighting or mixing with the other colors to lighten them up - it's a shade for makeup artists!
French Vanilla Latte is for porcelain fair skin. It's warm so it doesn't look fake or off. It should suit girls that use NC15 MAC foundations.
Chai Tea Latte is a step darker than French Vanilla. It has slight beige undertones. I would recommend this for NC20/NW20.
Hazelnut Latte is a light medium yellow shade, appropriate for those with NC30-35 skin tones. I'm an NC35 and this suits me perfectly, even though it's half a shade lighter. This is what I use. It "melts" on my skin after an hour so it matches.
Cafe Mocha is slightly darker than Hazelnute latte though it looks similar in the swatch. It has a neutral under tone.
And so we move to the shades for medium to dark skin! The five darkest shades are almost similar, actually, with Caramel and Machiatto being the ones that suit morenas best. Almond and Cinnamon are for medium, leaning towards dark skin (NC35-40).
If this still confuses you, I personally only use five shades on people I've applied Ellana makeup on (that's quite a lot of people as I did makeup on passing guests for two Ellana mall events). They are, from lightest to darkest:
French Vanilla Latte (fair skin) - Chai Tea Latte (light) - Hazelnut Latte (light medium) - Almond Latte (medium) - Toffee Mocha (medium dark) - Macchiato (morena dark)
Hope this is useful y'all! Do share your Ellana foundation shades here as well, and your description of your skin, to help others hone in on their picks. ^_^
You can purchase your Ellana Loose Mineral Foundation through my affiliate link. I earn a small commission for every purchase, btw, which always makes me feel kilig because you got something because of my recommendation. If it's your first time to buy from this link, you get 15% off.
